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Terrorists rife in the State Dept.The FBI is on it:)
by Matthew X 31 Aug '02

31 Aug '02

Senators to give FBI records on contacts with media By The Associated Press 08.30.02 Printer-friendly page WASHINGTON Most members of a Senate committee investigating the Sept. 11 attacks have agreed to provide the FBI with details of their contacts with reporters as part of an investigation into leaks of classified information. Contacted yesterday by the Associated Press, the offices of 13 of the 17 Senate Intelligence Committee members said they were complying with the FBI request. No office said it wasn't. In the other four offices, information wasn't available because the senator was traveling. The FBI is trying to determine who leaked details of conversations intercepted by the National Security Agency that were discussed June 18 at the House and Senate intelligence committees' closed-door inquiry. Details of the Arabic intercepts on Sept. 10 the day before the September 2001 terror attacks were initially broadcast by CNN the day after the closed hearing. The committees had requested the FBI investigation. Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., the committee's chairman, has instructed his staff to compile the material requested, his spokesman, Paul Anderson, said. Anderson said Graham supported the FBI investigation because the leak of classified information violated the law. The FBI also could examine whether the leaks may have come from outside Congress, he said. An internal investigation might not be able to do so. Graham "has said that he has nothing to hide," Anderson said. But Paul McMasters, First Amendment ombudsman for the Freedom Forum's First Amendment Center, said the FBI investigation could go beyond the leaks and uncover unrelated communications between lawmakers and journalists. "That's where this problem comes in," he said. Caesar Andrews, president of the Associated Press Managing Editors, said the request for information about press contacts "creates a mood of fear and dread among those people who should be helping to put the U.S. efforts in context." "I think it's more the climate that's created when there's a sense of overly aggressive efforts to clamp down on information," said Andrews, editor of Gannett News Service. "Obviously it's an issue that ultimately has a chilling effect on the flow of information from official sources to the public," said Douglas Clifton, editor of The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and chairman of the American Society of Newspaper Editors' Freedom of Information Committee. The FBI investigation comes as the Justice Department seeks to block public disclosure by Congress of the results of its investigation of Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person charged in the United States in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks. In court papers unsealed yesterday in Alexandria, Va., prosecutors said they didn't object to plans by the House and Senate intelligence committees to disclose what the government knows about the planning and execution of the attacks or what was known about two of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers who met with al-Qaida operatives in Malaysia in January 2000, shortly before they came to the United States. But the government said planned hearings next month into the FBI's investigation of Moussaoui while he was in custody before the attacks could jeopardize his trial, now set for January. Lawyers for the committees said the hearings would not delve into Moussaoui's guilt or innocence. U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema refused for the time being to interfere with the hearings. But she asked prosecutors to propose new rules for handling sensitive material from the Moussaoui case that might be made public during congressional hearings. In connection with the FBI's investigation of leaks, the Justice Department sent a letter to the Senate counsel's office Aug. 7 requesting that members of the Senate committee and their press staff submit telephone logs, memos, visitor sign-in sheets and other material showing communications with the news media between noon June 18 and 3:15 p.m. June 19, when CNN broadcast details of the intercepts. The letter also called for calendars, appointment books and e-mails for the senators and their press staff during that period. No similar request was made of House Intelligence Committee members. Some lawmakers, including the panel's top Republican, Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, have said the FBI investigation of the committees breached the separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches particularly while the committee was examining intelligence shortcomings at the FBI and other agencies. Sen. Richard Durbin, R-Ill., told the Chicago Sun-Times this week that in requesting personal schedules, the FBI was "trying to put a damper on our activities and I think they will be successful." He was unavailable for comment yesterday. Related Is the press guilty of treason? Ombudsman Many regard robust exercise of First Amendment rights by either the press or the people as a dangerous problem in the fight against terrorism. 08.08.02 Rumsfeld urges crackdown on leaks to press Defense secretary writes memo a week after The New York Times reports on classified document outlining aspects of 'concept' for U.S. war against Iraq. 07.17.02 Reporter: State Department demanded source of classified leak National Review's Joel Mowbray says officials detained him briefly, wanted to know how he obtained secret papers on U.S. visa program in Saudi Arabia. 07.16.02 http://www.freedomforum.org/templates/document.asp?documentID=16846

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They get letters,WTF do we ALLIES get?
by Matthew X 31 Aug '02

31 Aug '02

Parents happy over efforts to win release of Guantanamo prisoners By a Staff Writer JEDDAH, 31 August The parents of two Saudis held at a US military base in Cuba have expressed happiness over efforts made by the Saudi authorities to win freedom for their sons. The two Saudi fathers told Al-Watan daily that they had received letters from their sons Jaber Hasan Al-Qahtani, 24, and Abdullah Hamid Al-Mosleh, 23, in Guantanamo. "They said they were in good health and were treated well by the Americans," the daily quoted the parents as saying. In their letters, Jaber and Abdullah expressed optimism that their ordeal would end soon. http://www.arabnews.com/Article.asp?ID=18214 AU's Hicks and Habib are incommunicado,no lawyers,no letters. US authorities have refused to give the detainees in Guantanamo prisoner-of-war status as set out under the Geneva Conventions and are reserving the right to present them before secret US military tribunals that have the power to impose the death penalty.

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4 billion dollar fine on the US,how do ya'll like them apples?
by Matthew X 31 Aug '02

31 Aug '02

The World Trade Organization ruled Friday that the European Union may impose record sanctions of some $4 billion on U.S exports, creating a major incentive for Washington to abandon special tax breaks for U.S. companies. Read the full text of the World Trade Organization ruling . The $4 billion sanction threat -- 20 times the amount imposed in any previous WTO disputes -- is a major victory for the EU over what it calls the "huge illegal export subsidy" provided to U.S. exporters. But EU officials have indicated that they will hold off on imposing the sanctions if the U.S. changes its tax policies and comes into compliance with WTO rules. "We are satisfied by today's decision that makes the cost of non-compliance with the WTO crystal clear," Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamay said in a statement issued by the European Commission. The U.S. tax break program, known as "Foreign Sales Corporations," allows U.S. companies with foreign interests to exempt between 15 and 30 percent of their export income from U.S. taxes. Approved by Congress in 2000, the provision allows major U.S. exporters such as Boeing, Microsoft and Disney to pay less tax, making their products cheaper and giving them an advantage over foreign competitors. The EU asked the WTO for the right to retaliate on $4.043 billion worth of goods, based on the amount of damage done to EU companies struggling to compete with U.S. corporations taking advantage of the tax breaks. A special panel of trade arbitrators decided on the sanctions figure after a series of starts and stops on the case since January. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/wto_08-30-02.html

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Satellites can't track the dacoit down
by Matthew X 31 Aug '02

31 Aug '02

STF suspends hunt for Veerappan TIMES NEWS NETWORK [ FRIDAY, AUGUST 30, 2002 11:02:20 PM ] KOLLEGAL/BANGALORE: Amid mounting pressure from various quarters, who fear threat to hostage H Nagappa's life, the Karnataka Special Task Force (STF) on Friday suspended its combing operations to track Veerappan. STF sources told The Times of India the directive came from the state government on Thursday night. "Since Friday morning we are not carrying out any operations and have asked the men inside the forest to return to their respective camps," they added. THE STORY SO FAR August 25: Sandalwood smuggler Veerappan abducts former Karnataka minister H Nagappa. August 26: Veerappan sends a cassette in which he says Nagappa will be killed if the government tries to rescue him. August 27: Karnataka Chief Minister S M Krishna meets Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa to discuss the situation. They decide to ask the Centre for helicopters and sensors to track Veerappan. August 28: Karnataka and Tamil Nadu special task forces intensify combing operations to nab Veerappan. Members of the bandit's gang are sighted in the Ramapura forest range. Advocate Venugopal offers to act as mediator to negotiate Nagappa's release. August 29: There are reports of Veerappan sending another cassette with demands for the release of former Karnataka minister. Chief Minister S M Krishna, police deny receiving the second tape Fearing threat to Nagappa's life, Karnataka government suspends STF operations to track Veerappan This was the demand of Veerappan in his first cassette of 54 second duration where he had threatened to kill Nagappa if combing operations were not stopped. There were reports of Veerappan sending the much-awaited second cassette expected to contain his demands. Both government and the police denied it. Apart from the government's efforts, the JD(U) leaders are also on the job as Nagappa is their partyman. JD(U) MLA P G R Sindhia is in touch with Suttur math seer Sri Shivarathri Desikendra, who in turn is tapping sources who can get in touch with Veerappan, sources said. Meanwhile, advocate Venugopal, who has offered his services to mediate with Veerappan, has sent his "own message" to Veerappan in an interview to All India Radio, Coimbatore station. "I have cited reasons to Veerappan of my offering to be an emissary and also reminded him of the number of people who have suffered on account of him," Venugopal said. Chief Minister S M Krishna, who called on Nagappa's family at Kamagere on Friday declining to say anything concrete on the issue, hinted of suspending the operations. "We will take necessary action required to get Nagappa back," he stated. Queried on the kind of action, Primary and Secondary Education Minister B K Chandrashekar said: "Here action means strategy and the government is working out a suitable strategy which will ensure Nagappa's release." Substantiating the statement, Krishna said: "Action necessarily does not mean only gun battle." Later addressing the gathering, Krishna said the government was serious in its efforts to get back Nagappa safely. "We will use all tactics adopted by the government in a similar situation two years ago when Rajkumar was kidnapped," he maintained. Notwithstanding the suspension of combing operations, three senior police officers - S T Ramesh (IGP), K Suresh Babu (IGP) and Gopal B Hosur (DCP) - were asked to report at the M M Hills base camp of STF. The officers left Bangalore following a message from DGP V V Bhaskar, who is personally supervising STF operations, dressed in commando style uniform and armed with binoculars and AK-47 rifles. Around 10 police officers from the city police and several others from CoD and KSRP have been drafted for the STF work. Gopal Hosur, who had served in the STF earlier had survived an attack on him by Veerappan from a close range 10 years ago. However, Hosur's colleagues, Harikrishna (SP) and others were shot dead. A bullet was stuck in Hosur's body, which was operated and removed. Related stories Satellites can't track the dacoit down Nedumaran ready to negotiate with Veerappan The brigand's area of operation The story so far Sandalwood smuggler's road to notoriety

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Justice delayed.
by Matthew X 31 Aug '02

31 Aug '02

Hicks in for the long haul By MICHAEL McKENNA 31aug02 AUSTRALIAN terror suspects David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib face a likely wait of more than a year for their legal battle against detention in a Cuban jail to be resolved American lawyers for the two men yesterday said the appeal process, expected to be completed in the US Supreme Court, was facing extensive delays under the weight of the legal system. The appeals, and counter appeals, follow the US District Court decision this month to detain the men without trial. Hicks, captured in Afghanistan, and Habib in Pakistan by local authorities, are being held in a maximum security prison at the US Navy base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. Both are accused, with the 596 other detainees at the navy base, of having links to al-Qaeda. "The legal system here is very slow at the moment and the appeal to the District Court decision alone will take a few months," said their lawyer, Joseph Margulies. Some good news though... Whale free of nets 31 August 2002 A HUMPBACK whale thought to have drowned after being caught in shark nets on the Gold Coast found some new friends yesterday as it was finally untangled by rescuers. 'Enduro," was towing an anchor,shark net and ropes/chains on a slow trek south...

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Re: Mitigating Dangers of Compromised Anonymity
by Morlock Elloi 31 Aug '02

31 Aug '02

Just wondering ... in a life & death situation (say, blackmailing att. general), what would be the choice of readers of this forum: a) use mixmaster remailer from their home/business/friend. b) use an internet cafe c) use an open wireless AP b and c assume, of course, one-time use of a throwaway e-mail acct. c) makes most sense to me, provided that you fake your radio card's MAC and do it while walking by, with folded laptop in a bag running a script. ===== end (of original message) Y-a*h*o-o (yes, they scan for this) spam follows: Yahoo! Finance - Get real-time stock quotes http://finance.yahoo.com

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Mutant Rat?
by Matthew X 31 Aug '02

31 Aug '02

Fallout deaths By NICK RICHARDSON 31aug02 RADIOACTIVE fallout from the British nuclear tests in the 1950s might be linked to an alarming rise in infant deaths in some Victorian towns.Fallout deaths By NICK RICHARDSON 31aug02 RADIOACTIVE fallout from the British nuclear tests in the 1950s might be linked to an alarming rise in infant deaths in some Victorian towns. Approaching the 50th anniversary of the first nuclear explosion on October 3, 1952, at the Monte Bello Islands off the West Australian coast, research reveals several towns in Victoria, NSW and Queensland recorded higher-than-usual infant death rates in the late 1950s. Each of the 12 tests conducted in and around Australia from 1952-57 generated a nuclear cloud. In some areas, the nuclear plume met rain clouds, forming a potentially lethal solution. According to official radioactivity monitoring stations at the time, Sale, Echuca, Hamilton, Mildura, Nhill, Swan Hill and Warrnambool were exposed to some radiation - especially after the final bomb at Maralinga in October 1957. Australian and British authorities maintained at the time the exposure was minimal and there was no threat. But in the past 50 years, evidence has emerged there is no safe level of radiation exposure. A survey of infant mortality rates in the Victorian towns reveals a circumstantial link between the nuclear rain and a rise in deaths. Sixteen children aged up to two died in Mildura in 1958. In 1959, the number was 20, before dropping to 13 the next year. Warrnambool had a similar pattern. The number of infant deaths in 1958 was 27. It increased to 34 in 1959, then dropped to 16 in 1960. Mt Isa in Queensland and Tamworth and Armidale in New South Wales mirror the Victorian results. The initial alarm about fallout was raised by Australian scientist Hedley Marston in 1957. Mr Marston found a radioactive cloud from the third nuclear test passed over Adelaide and left debris in the city's northern suburbs. His research on sheep and cattle, which had eaten fallout-tainted pasture, indicated the presence of a lethal nuclear by-product, strontium 90. Approaching the 50th anniversary of the first nuclear explosion on October 3, 1952, at the Monte Bello Islands off the West Australian coast, research reveals several towns in Victoria, NSW and Queensland recorded higher-than-usual infant death rates in the late 1950s. Each of the 12 tests conducted in and around Australia from 1952-57 generated a nuclear cloud. In some areas, the nuclear plume met rain clouds, forming a potentially lethal solution. According to official radioactivity monitoring stations at the time, Sale, Echuca, Hamilton, Mildura, Nhill, Swan Hill and Warrnambool were exposed to some radiation - especially after the final bomb at Maralinga in October 1957. Australian and British authorities maintained at the time the exposure was minimal and there was no threat. But in the past 50 years, evidence has emerged there is no safe level of radiation exposure. A survey of infant mortality rates in the Victorian towns reveals a circumstantial link between the nuclear rain and a rise in deaths. Sixteen children aged up to two died in Mildura in 1958. In 1959, the number was 20, before dropping to 13 the next year. Warrnambool had a similar pattern. The number of infant deaths in 1958 was 27. It increased to 34 in 1959, then dropped to 16 in 1960. Mt Isa in Queensland and Tamworth and Armidale in New South Wales mirror the Victorian results. The initial alarm about fallout was raised by Australian scientist Hedley Marston in 1957. Mr Marston found a radioactive cloud from the third nuclear test passed over Adelaide and left debris in the city's northern suburbs. His research on sheep and cattle, which had eaten fallout-tainted pasture, indicated the presence of a lethal nuclear by-product, strontium 90. END professor rat was born in 55 at Ballarat,country Vic.French tests raised cesium levels in milk around the late 50's early 60's.

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Shrub the jesus freak.
by Matthew X 31 Aug '02

31 Aug '02

Interview with playwright Harold Pinter - 'I think that when you look at a man like our prime minister - who I gather is a very sincere and serious Christian - he, we understand at the moment, is considering another bombing of Iraq, which would be an act of premeditated murder because if you bomb Iraq, you're not just going to kill Saddam Hussein. In fact, you won't do that anyway; he has his resources. What you will do, as usual, is kill thousands of totally innocent people. How Tony Blair can work that one out morally himself is actually beyond me. I just wish he would decide if he was a Christian or he wasn't a Christian' ( Guardian ) Is shrub a christian? Inquiring minds etc... Chief executives should be screened to weed out psychopaths: researcher Coverage of a recent keynote presentation by psychopathy expert Robert Hare, during which he suggested that corporate leaders should be screened for psychopathic behaviour disorders ( CP via The Record ) See also this blog entry from earlier this month AT http://www.hullocentral.demon.co.uk/site/anfin.htm

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Echoes of Ari-contra-PROMIS.
by Matthew X 31 Aug '02

31 Aug '02

http://www.rense.com/general28/iss.htm "...Already under the Iran's former Shah's regime, Israel had strong links with non-Arab government in the form of military and trade alliances such as oil-for-arms arrangements against their common Arab enemy Iraq. Against the backdrop of the 1980-1998 Iran-Iraq war, Israel continued to supply arms to Tehran when Ayatollah Khomeini took power and even after the 1979-1981 hostage crisis at the US embassy there. The most notorious case of the shadowy relations between the two countries was the "Irangate" scandal which broke in 1986 over the secret financing of the anti-Sandinista Contras guerrilla in Nicaragua through arms sales to Iran with Israel acting as an intermediary. http://www.arabia.com/afp/news/mideast/article/english/0,10846,276765,00.ht… Who Ari? Ben-Menashe, Ari. Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network. New York: Sheridan Square Press, 1992. 394 pages. If this book is even half true, it means that less than ten percent of the Reagan and Bush administration double-dealing was ever revealed to the American public. Ari Ben-Menashe's description of the U.S.-Israeli arms network can only be described as "sensational." If you accept his scenario, it's apparent that an impotent U.S. Congress, once they got a whiff of the dimensions of the problem and considered their options, had no choice but to cover it all up. Some journalists who have verified portions of Ben-Menashe's story have found that his information is excellent. Others just wish he would disappear and are inclined to discredit him, because to accept him is to admit that you've been chasing your tail for ten years and missing it all. With Ben-Menashe, there doesn't seem to be any middle ground. Ben-Menashe was one of six on Israel's top-secret Joint Committee on Israel-Iran Relations, and spent years globe-trotting for them, setting up fronts and transferring millions in cash. In 1980 he saw George Bush in Paris meeting with a high Iranian official, and in 1986 he briefed Bush. In 1981 Robert Gates helped him with his suitcase containing $56 million. Others in this book include Margaret Thatcher's son Mark, Chilean arms dealer Carlos Cardoen, and Paraguay's Alfredo Stroessner, to name a few. http://www.pir.org/sources/TO.html

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Northwoods Homeland Security.
by Matthew X 31 Aug '02

31 Aug '02

Bush wrong to use pretext as excuse to invade Iraq By James Bamford As the Bush administration raises prospects of war with Iraq, USA TODAY asked experts to explore critical military, diplomatic and political factors involved and the possible consequences. This is part of that occasional series. Vice President Cheney's speech this week showed that the administration has no new evidence to support its claim that Iraq poses an immediate threat to the United States. Instead, Cheney used standard, vague terms: "no doubt" Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction or will acquire nuclear weapons "fairly soon." The administration also points to the possible presence of fleeing al-Qaeda members in northern Iraq, perhaps of senior rank. But it has difficulty tying them directly to Saddam because the area is largely under the control of Kurdish opposition leader Jallal Tallabani, who has worked with the Bush administration against Saddam. Without convincing evidence of imminent danger, administration officials have been dusting off old cases that hint at Iraqi plots and conspiracies, but are unsupported by facts. Many worry that such incidents will be exploited as pretexts to justify pre-emptive strikes. The Navy, for instance, is considering changing the status of a pilot shot down over Iraq during the Gulf War from missing in action to captured. But, given no known physical evidence to support that possibility nor any new facts, some see this as one more cynical political pretext for invasion. Bush administration officials also have been reviving the old story that Sept. 11 hijacker Mohamed Atta met in the Czech Republic capital of Prague with an Iraqi agent five months before the attacks a possible link between Iraq and al-Qaeda. An unnamed senior administration official told the Los Angeles Times that evidence of such a meeting "holds up." A federal law enforcement official, the Times reported, said the FBI has been reviewing Atta's records with "renewed vigor" for a possible link to Iraq. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld recently added at a news conference that Iraq "had a relationship" with al-Qaeda. But senior U.S. intelligence officials have discounted the meeting. "We ran down literally hundreds of thousands of leads and checked every record we could get our hands on," said FBI Director Robert Mueller. The records revealed that Atta was in Virginia Beach during the time he supposedly met the Iraqi in Prague. While the administration is under increasing pressure to make its case for invasion, using as pretexts supposed instances such as these carries grave dangers. The past holds lessons about pretext and making the right and wrong decisions. One of the most outrageous uses of pretext took place during the Kennedy administration after the failed Bay of Pigs operation, in which the CIA wrongly underestimated the amount of internal support for Fidel Castro. With the CIA out of the picture, the Joint Chiefs of Staff saw a grand opportunity for the military to launch an all-out war against Cuba. But they needed a pretext. The answer was Operation Northwoods: The Joint Chiefs would secretly launch a war of terror on the U.S. public then blame it on Castro. According to long-hidden top-secret documents I obtained from the National Archives, Operation Northwoods called for innocent people to be shot on U.S. streets; for boats carrying refugees fleeing Cuba to be sunk; for waves of terrorism in Washington, Miami and elsewhere. Using phony evidence to blame Castro, the Joint Chiefs would get their needed pretext. Each member of the Joint Chiefs signed off on the plan. Then the chairman hand-carried it to Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara who promptly rejected it. Two years later, U.S. generals were looking for another pretext to go to war, this time in Vietnam. In the summer of 1964, President Lyndon Johnson sought to escalate U.S. involvement in Vietnam's civil war. The decision was made to launch hit-and-run attacks against coastal North Vietnamese targets while a slow-moving destroyer, the USS Maddox, sat just off the shore in international waters. Knowing the North Vietnamese would associate the nearby warship with the attacks, the Pentagon likely hoped to provoke a retaliatory strike against the vessel the perfect pretext for a declaration of war. Indeed, North Vietnamese patrol boats fired torpedoes at the ship but missed. The Maddox sailed safely away. McNamara ordered the largely useless coastal attacks to continue and sent the ship back to its original dangerous position. Two nights after the first attack, the USS C. Turner Joy, escorting the Maddox, sent messages to Washington indicating the ship was under attack. It was later found that no such attack took place; the messages were blamed on nervous crewmembers and radar "ghost images." But it was the excuse Johnson and McNamara sought. They pressed Congress for a declaration of war. Captured by the moment's hysteria, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin resolution. An incident that never took place became the pretext for expanding a war that would claim the lives of more than 50,000 Americans as well as a million-plus Vietnamese. "Many of the people who were associated with the war were looking for any excuse to initiate bombing," recalled George Ball, at the time a State undersecretary. "The sending of a destroyer up the Tonkin Gulf was primarily for provocation. ... There was a feeling that if the destroyer got into some trouble, that it would provide the provocation we needed." History is layered with the bodies of those who have died when someone mistakes zealotry for patriotism and pretext for truth. If the Bush administration does embark on a bloody war in the Middle East, it should be based on certainty, not pretext. James Bamford, author of Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency, is a member of USA TODAY's board of contributors. http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/2002-08-29-usat-opin-bamford_x.htm Collapse of Govts cant be far off with the access to knowledge we all have now,its soft APster!

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